Home
		Innovations 2005 Expert Panel Makes Key Recommendations   The second day of the Innovations 2005 conference focused on technical sessions and on producing a summary of the panel recommendations on “Producing Information Technology – Can the Middle-East Do It? The expert panel was composed of:   Moderator: Mr. Gilbert Lacroix, VP Computer Associates Dr. Yergen Knorr, CEO Dubai Silicon Oasis Mr. Mark DeSimone: VP Cisco EMEA Dr. Krishna Nathan: IBM VP and Directer of Zurich Research Lab Dr. Vijay Chandru, Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Mr. Chris Moyer, Fellow, EDS The panel discussed the principal barriers and opportunities for the Middle-East to become a major producer of Information Technology. The topics considered are: - What are the barriers to making IT production a reality in the region? - What are the roles that different regional countries can play? - What is the role of Incubators and spin-off companies - what is required to make this happen? - How can academe contribute to this effort? - What are the government responsibilities and why has government in the region in general not stepped up to these responsibilities yet? - What is the role of the IT-producing industry and what do we need to do to get them on board? - What is the role of major IT regional resellers? - How do we establish synergy between academe, industry and government and who acts as the catalyst for this synergy? - What is the role of Research & Development and what do we need to do in this regard to be a player in it (PhD programs, government research labs, etc...)   The panel recommendations are being compiled by some of the scientists that are participating in the program, a summary of which follows:   General Recommendations: 1- Major IT companies need to transform their Middle-East operations from purely local sales of technology produced elsewhere, to international sales of technology produced locally. 2- Middle-East governments must enact Intellectual Property (IP) rights that protect companies and individuals from IP theft. 3- Government must bear some initial development costs to make it attractive for companies to invest in technology development in the region. 4- Government must make serious and massive investments in Applied Research and Development. 5- Political regional stability is necessary to build up confidence for international investment in local technology development. 6- The region should learn from but not try to imitate India’s or China’s models, but rather should focus on new niche technologies such as bioinformatics and network intelligence. 7- Universities need to build a culture of innovation and an environment conducive to the creation of spin-off companies. This requires reduced teaching loads and an investment in applied research. 8- Universities must be much more proactive in reaching out to the industry to partner on applied research projects. 9- The panel is also concerned that with roughly half the regional population below the age of 20, the future can  be either be very bright or a disaster. It can be very bright if these young minds are nurtured and opportunities provided to them to innovate. It can be a disaster if current high levels of unemployment are allowed to persist and the young men and women are discouraged by lack of opportunities and political instability.